County worker loses benefits for stealing

The employee who stole $360,000 worth of ink cartridges from the County of San Diego will see his pension payments reduced following a meeting Thursday of the Board of Retirement.

Officials would not say how much former Child Support Services employee Rommel Asuncion will lose. He continues serving a three-year jail sentence for grand theft.

Rommel Asuncion

Rommel Asuncion

Rommel Asuncion

Asuncion, 33, is the first former county employee to lose part of his benefits under the Public Employees Pension Reform Act, which allows pension funds to reduce benefits for members convicted of a job-related felony.

He had 8.1 years of service when he left the county. His benefits will be lowered to exclude accruals past 2007, when the thefts began.

Trustees also debated whether a second felon — former deputy Richard Silva — could have his 2010 disability retirement reinvestigated since he pleaded guilty to a felony worker’s compensation fraud charge.

Silva, 41, a former Deputy of the Year and Marine Purple Heart recipient, admitted lying in 2011 to a doctor evaluating his worker’s compensation claim. Under the reform act, crimes committed after retirement cannot impact a retiree’s benefits.

“Now that we know (Silva) committed the fraud under the worker’s comp, doesn’t that raise the question that he committed fraud on the disability issue?” asked county Supervisor Dianne Jacob, who serves on the pension board as part of her elected duties. “Can you go back and re-evaluate the disability?”

Member Services Director Johanna Shick said staff already reviewed the 2010 claim — awarded after Silva was injured in a scuffle with an inmate — and determined the case was properly vetted.

“To the best of our knowledge,” there was no fraud involved, Shick told trustees.